Letters to the Editor for March 6

Education dept.'s edict is absurd

I would like to comment on your Feb. 28th report regarding the state legislatures that have introduced bills that require schools to require students to use bathrooms and locker rooms designated for their birth gender. That is a reaction to an edict by the federal department of education that threatens to withhold federal funds from schools that restrict transgender students from using the facility that corresponds to their self-identified gender.

A school bowing to the department of education must allow a genetically male student to use the girl's bathroom. As you can imagine, that would surely discomfort the girls, but that is of no concern to the department of education. All that matters is that liberal notions of sexuality prevail. You would search the Constitution in vain trying to find a clause that gives the federal government the power to define a person's gender. The department of education has no legal means of enforcing its demand other than threatening to withhold federal funds.

This is a new test of federalism. The federal government cannot fine a state, so it achieves the equivalent by withholding funds. States usually give in to this blackmail but, in an unusual show of defiance, many states refused to expand Medicaid as provided for by the Affordable Care Act, even though that meant forgoing large amounts of federal funds. It looks like the states are also going to defy the federal government on the issue of the rights of transgender students.

The idea that a person can choose which gender he or she wishes to be is a relatively new development. Obviously, that doesn't change a person's chromosomes and therefore does not change the person's biological gender. A surgical operation is required to change one's genitals, but even that does not change the person's biological gender. Most Americans are supportive of LGBT rights, but they are opposed to the absurd edict of the department of education.

- Duane M. Perkins

Remembering the effort behind live radio

There was a great article written by Erin Collins about country music legend Al Schade, but it in could in no way, tell of the effort to get to the studios after arriving at 8th and Cumberland streets. Finding a parking space, lugging instruments, amplifiers and music up four flights of stairs, each flight at least 20 steps, setting everything up, practicing then going on the air for 15 minutes, s half hour if you were lucky enough to have enough sponsors, tear it all apart, drag all that stuff down those flights of stairs, load everything up in your car and drive those 50 miles back to Gratz and have to unload that equipment again. Now you handled that stuff four times so far and maybe you had an engagement that night!

I know what they went through. I was at the station. I was about 12 years old. My memory is not like it was, but when it comes to radio, I can remember. You had two studios, and as one group finished, another moved right in to practice and a group was getting ready in the record room. This was all live! What you heard is what you got. If someone hit a klinker, so be it. This was live radio, no turning back.

I would not trade those memories for anything in the world. I still keep my fingers in broadcasting.

- Roger Bomberger, Lebanon

The Republican Party's perfect storm

Old sailers know that some waters are impossible to navigate and far too dangerous to sail. These waters are dark and deep with vicious currents and unseen rocks lurking just below the surface.

In the world of politics there are also dark and deep waters that should never be crossed. The raging forces of anger, fear, and bigotry are dangerous political waters that devastate nations and people. History provides us with many accounts of those that were overwhelmed and destroyed by these forces. Once the storms of hatred and bigotry consume a nation it is swept up in the current and carried to oblivion. All the good that came before, all the words of justice and humanity, are drowned out by shouts of outrage and inhumanity. No self-proclaimed savior or demigod can control or navigate these forces for they are the monsters of our past.

It is an undeniable truth, supported by history, that political parties or movements that motivate their base with hatred and anger have never contributed anything of value to our nation or mankind. On the contrary, any political party motivated by anger and fear has historically done great damage to America and the world. The costly lessons of World War II should never be forgotten.

Only the foolish think they can control the forces of hatred and bigotry that dwell in the Devils Sea.